


Time is an Illusion (and so are pants)

by Valektra



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e04 The Swamp, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Zuko Joins The Gaang Early (Avatar), no beta we die like jet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29713236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valektra/pseuds/Valektra
Summary: Aang sees and older Zuko in the swamp in addition to the Toph vision. Zuko questions his loyalties a little sooner. Toph is more proactive.
Relationships: The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 88





	Time is an Illusion (and so are pants)

**Author's Note:**

> Funky swamp time 
> 
> I don't know how to properly use HTML so if that's broken...I'm sorry

## Chapter 1: Aang just wants more friends

Just as Aang thought he had finally caught up to the girl in the fancy dress, he turned the corner around the tree where she was _supposed_ to be but instead, she was gone.

Which was extremely frustrating, but now he was looking at the back of a man—teenager?—with long black hair half-up in a top-knot standing in the middle of a small clearing. 

_At least he isn’t running away like the girl that laughed at him_ , he thought.

“Uh, hello,” Aang started, a little annoyed at not knowing if this guy was just going to disappear if he blinked or not.

The teen startled and whipped his head around to stare at him with his eyes—no, _eye_ — widened, at the greeting.

Aang realized who he was staring at.

“Zuko?” he shouted, throwing his hands up in a bending stance, “What are you doing here?”

Long-haired Zuko just looked at him for a few seconds before saying, “Oh. So that’s what Sokka meant by, ‘freaky Avatar swamp visions.’” 

“What?” Aang blinked and long-haired-not-attacking-him, Zuko promptly disappeared.

“Monkey-feathers!” This was when Katara and Sokka crashed into him from different directions.

+++

A few years later, Fire Lord Zuko blinked back to his sparring match with a certain boomerang guy, and immediately got knocked upside the head.

This feels familiar. 

+++ 

Flying away from the swamp with the ability to create creepy tornados out of nowhere, Aang turned around to look at his friends. 

“Remember when I said I didn’t know the girl I saw?” 

Aang may or may not have decided to not tell Sokka and Katara about seeing Weird Zuko until he had found Appa and Momo. 

“Yeah, you said some Avatar mumbo-jumbo about her being someone you _will_ meet or something.” Sokka said with a wave in Aang’s direction. 

“Well,” Aang looked away to scratch at the back of his head, “I may have seen Zuko.”

Sokka immediately sat up straighter, “Zuko?! And you’re waiting till now to say something?” 

Katara’s “What?” was a little quieter. 

With his hands in front of himself, Aang explained, “Well not _Zuko_ Zuko. A different Zuko. I think.” 

“A different Zuko.” Sokka deadpanned. 

Katara raised an eyebrow, “You think?”

“Yeah, he had a lot more hair, he was taller—I think—and he didn’t try to attack me which was weird. Oh! And he mentioned Sokka saying something about freaky swamp visions. Then he was gone.” 

“That does sound like something I’d say.” 

Katara smacked her brother on the arm, “You’re not going to question this?” 

“What?” He rubbed at his arm, “Weird stuff happens to us.” 

She doesn’t argue that point, but Aang seeing an older, possibly non-violent Zuko should be questioned a little more than just writing it off as Weird Avatar Stuff. 

Looking back towards the Airbender she asks, “What do you think Aang? You’re the one who saw him.” 

“Well, I don’t really know…Maybe it means Sokka and Zuko will be friends!” He says with a smile at Sokka.

 _Friends with the angry ponytail jerk? I don’t think so._

“Your optimism kinda scares me sometimes, you know that?”

+++

They don’t talk about Avatar Day _or_ the un-fried dough. 

+++ 

Toph knows she’s going to be the champion of Earth Rumble VI. She can feel it. 

The Boulder’s third-person speech has nothing on her feet. 

+++

The ostrich-horse bit him. Multiple times. Zuko supposes that’s a fair reaction to being horse-napped by a Firebender. 

After he fed her, she stopped biting him. Mostly.

This kid,—Lee—just kinda started leading him back to his house after not ratting him out to those sad excuses for soldiers. He’s very unrelenting about taking Zuko back to his house and Zuko allows this because he’s flat-broke, hungry, and has been bitten by a finicky ostrich-horse more than three times. 

He doesn’t completely understand why he ends up giving the kid a short sword lesson in the middle of the night, but he’s confused about a lot of things in his life right now, and maybe this unrelenting eleven year old reminds him of himself a little. 

+++ 

No one thanks him after he reveals himself as a Firebender to save the kid. At least the ostrich-horse doesn’t try to bite him when he leaves the town. 

+++

Search for an Earthbending teacher has landed them in Gaoling, after a failed attempt at an Earthbending school Katara got them a new lead on a tournament called Earth Rumble. 

+++

“This is just gonna be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other. Isn’t it?” 

“That’s what I paid for.” 

They soon find out why no one’s sitting in the front rows.

+++

Toph is standing in the arena with Xin Fu while he asks the audience if anyone wants to challenge her. The audience never challenges the winner in Earth Rumble. 

Until a boy with the softest footsteps she’s ever felt does. She mentally dubs him Twinkle-Toes. 

He says he wants to talk. She chucks a rock bigger than her at him, and right after she thinks she’s got him pinned she’s _thrown off the arena by an unknown force_. 

She doesn’t know how he did it but she knows she’s angry about it. She’s leaving. 

“Please! Listen, I need an Earthbending teacher and I think it’s supposed to be you!” The _untrained_ cheater yelled at her from the stairs to the arena. 

She replies over her shoulder, walking away, “Whoever you are just leave me alone.” 

This was the most annoyed she’s been since her idiot of an Earthbending “master” wouldn’t let her go past the basics. 

“Wait!” 

She opens up a passage, turns, and slams the wall in the soft-footed cheater’s face. 

+++

Walking out of the area where Earth Rumble VI was held, Aang smacks himself in the forehead, “Ugh, I didn’t think finding an Earthbending teacher would be this hard, I just wanted to talk to her and she threw a rock at me! Why is she so stubborn?” 

Katara pet Momo who was sitting on her shoulder, “Well you did kind of cost her the competition by airbending at her in an earthbending tournament.” 

Busy with admiring the championship belt, Sokka didn’t give Aang an answer. 

“I find the girl I saw in a swamp vision a week after leaving it, and all she does is throw a rock at me and slam the door in my face.”

Looking up, Sokka says, “Yeah, girls are like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> comment your thoughts! i wanna know


End file.
